Prayers for all Occasions, Needs, and Intentions

PRAYERS TO ST. JUDE THADDEUS

"St. Jude's Epistle and Explanation" 

The Epistle of St. Jude

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to the called who have been loved in God the Father and preserved for Christ Jesus: mercy and peace and charity be given you in abundance.

Beloved, while I was making every endeavor to write you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the Faith, once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have stealthily entered in, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turn the grace of God into wantonness and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

But I desire to remind you, though once for all you have come to know all things that Jesus, who saved the people from the land of Egypt, the next time destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels also who did not preserve their original state, but forsook their abode, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities which like them committed sins of immorality and practiced unnatural vice, have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

In like manner do these men also defile the flesh, disregard authority, deride majesty. Yet when Michael the Archangel was fiercely disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, he did not venture to bring against him an accusation of blasphemy, but said, "May the Lord rebuke thee." But these men deride whatever they do not know; and the things they know by instinct, like dumb beasts, become for them a source of destruction. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and have rushed on thoughtlessly into the error of Balaam for the sake of gain, and have perished in the rebellion of Core. These men are stains on their feasts, banqueting together; without fear, looking after themselves; clouds without water, carried about by the winds; trees in the fall, unfruitful, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness has been reserved forever.

Now of these also, Henoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord has come with thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the impious of their impious works, and of all the hard things that impious sinners have spoken against Him." These are grumbling murmurers walking according to their lusts. And haughty in speech, they cultivate people for the sake of gain. But as for you, beloved, be mindful of the words that have been spoken beforehand by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, who kept saying to you that at the end of time there will come scoffers, walking impiously according to their desires. These are they who set themselves apart, sensual men, not having the Spirit.

But as for you, beloved, build up yourselves upon your most holy Faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting. And some, who are judged, reprove; but others, save, snatching them from the fire. And to others be merciful with fear, hating even the garment which is soiled by the flesh.

Now to Him who is able to preserve you without sin and to set you before the presence of His glory, without blemish, in gladness, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, belong glory and majesty, dominion and authority, before all time, and now, and forever. Amen.

St. Jude's Epistle Explanation

During the time of St. Jude's apostolate, certain errors had spread among the Hebrew Christians, and it was to caution them against these depraved falsehoods, as well as to exhort them to keep faithfully the teachings of the Apostles, that this Epistle was written. The doctrines against which St. Jude inveighed were the wicked practices of simony and heretical tenets being advocated among the early Christians.

In his Epistle, St. Jude urged the faithful to remain steadfast in the belief and practices of the teachings of the Apostles, who had foretold in aftertimes there would be false teachers, scoffing and ridiculing all revealed truths, abandoning themselves to their passions and lusts; men who would separate themselves from the Catholic communion by heresies and schisms, carnal men carried away and enslaved by the pleasures of the senses. That such men would be severely punished was evident from the punishment of the unbelieving Israelites in the desert, of the wicked angels and of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. St. Jude foretold for the heretics, the same punishment meted out to Cain, Balaam and the sons of Core, for they had imitated the errors of those wicked ones. To the pride of their wicked teachings and life he opposed the modesty of the Archangel Michael.

St. Jude likewise exhorted the early Christians to erect a true spiritual edifice by living lives founded upon faith, love of God, ardent hope, while awaiting the mercies of God and the reward of eternal life, and lastly, prayer. He exhorted them to practice fraternal charity when endeavoring to convert their neighbors, and cautioned them that in doing so they would encounter three types of persons: first, those obstinate in their errors and sins, who must be considered to be already judged and condemned; these, he said should be reproved and if possible convinced of their error. Secondly, those who would be willing to listen to their preaching and whom they should save by endeavoring to pull them, as it were, out of the fire, from the ruin of which they were in danger. Thirdly, those who either through ignorance or frailty were liable to be drawn into the snares of the heretics; these must be dealt with more gently and with a charitable compassion, and must be taught to hate even the garment which is soiled by the flesh. meaning those sensual and corrupt manners which defile both body and soul.

So strikingly applicable to our own times are the exhortations contained in this Epistle that they might well have been addressed to the Christians of the twentieth century. False teachings and errors without number are today being spread throughout the world, and the Catholics of our time truly need to be exhorted to remain steadfast in their Faith if they would escape being drawn into this whirlpool of error. The means which St. Jude proposes to the early Christians to maintain the Faith and keep themselves in the love of God are no other than those which the Church in our own times hold out, and has always held out to her children. His recommendations as to their manner of dealing with those who have in any way erred from the truth apply equally to the faithful of the present day. They may be said to contain the germ of Catholic Action, that form of participation in the salvation of souls to which the laity of our days are so earnestly exhorted.

St. Jude concludes his Epistle with a beautiful doxology, praising God for the gift of the incarnation, by means of which the Eternal Word took upon Himself our human nature, that He might become our Redeemer.